Trump’s white house and Zelenskyy clashes a deliberate escalation ” by us, says Merz d’Ar Germany – Politico

But the angry quarrel was an ambush pre-plainized by the Americans, said Friedrich Merz, the chief of the German conservatives and almost certainly the next Chancellor of the country after his party won a majority in the national elections of last month.

“In my opinion, it was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelenskyy said, but obviously a deliberate escalation in this meeting at the Oval Office,” said Merz, according to German media.

“What we have just seen in Washington has a certain continuity with a number of events in recent weeks, including the appearance of the US delegation in Munich at the security conference,” he added.

The German politician seemed to refer to the fiery speech of Vance at the Munich security conference last month, in which he called on Europe to “intensify” and manage his own defense instead of relying on American security guarantees.

However, Merz said that he was “somewhat surprised” by the acrimonious exchange of the White House and added that “mutual tone” was “not useful”.

The most important thing was “that we do our best to keep the Americans in Europe,” he said. Trump and his defense manager Pete Hegseth warned that Europe can no longer count on the post-war transatlantic alliance or on the American troops remaining on the continent to guarantee security.

Merz was one of the dozens of European leaders to reaffirm their support for Zelenskyy after the bruised camera quarrel

“Dear Volodymyr, we hold on with Ukraine in good and in testing time. We must never confuse the attacker and the victim in this terrible war, ”wrote Merz on X.